Abandoned Hakka villages in the New Territories / 被遺棄的新界客家村落

This visit in the abandoned Hakka settlements in the New Territories was one of the best experiences I had in Hong Kong. It is a mixture of exploration of lost villages hidden in the jungle and a great hike right next to the Chinese border. I will not write about the context because this area is very well-known and there is already an excellent article about these Hakka settlements documenting the historical background and the points of view of the last inhabitants.

The villagers are believed to have migrated to the area in the late 1600s, following the end of a temporary evacuation order from Guangdong’s coastal areas during the early Qing Dynasty (1644-1912). The evacuation zone, which included the whole of Hong Kong, was ordered by Qing Emperor Kangxi to deny Ming loyalist forces a base of support. After the order was lifted, a new wave of settlers returned to Hong Kong, cultivating acres of land and raising livestock, leading a self-sufficient lifestyle on the fringes of the Chinese empire.

For centuries, the Hakka thrived. Yet in the 1960s, the industrialisation of post-war Hong Kong and the arrival of mainland refugees sparked mass migration away from the countryside. Following a period of famine and starvation in mainland China as a result of disastrous agricultural policies under Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward campaign, multitudes of mainland Chinese citizens immigrated to Hong Kong.

From 1961 to 1981, as many as half a million refugees are estimated to have entered the city, with the majority settling in the New Territories. The influx of immigrants into the countryside created more competition amongst the region’s farmers, depriving many locals of their livelihoods. As the population of Hakka villagers also reached a peak in the 1960s, overcrowding put more pressure on natural resources. Unable to compete both in the agricultural and burgeoning manufacturing sectors, many took advantage of their right of abode as British subjects to relocate to the United Kingdom in search of a better life.

You can read the whole article here. As I can’t speak Cantonese, I suggest you learn more details on other blog reports (you can check out this report for instance) because I cannot really provide any deeper analysis myself. I decide to just share my pictures on the process of decay, structured by themes and not precise village names.

« Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away »

Philip K. Dick, How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later, 1978

Urban exploration in China: a fascinating escape

Have you ever wanted to travel without going too far? Looking for and finding lost places in a city is a challenge but usually worth the efforts. Entering abandoned places feels like stepping in another dimension of space and time: the urban picture one saw before is now distorted, and one accesses an alternate reality, standing there just as “true” as the “normal” one, but less visible, less accessible, less well-known... And that is the beauty of it, when the materiality of the place, its ecosystem, tells us its story without any intermediary. Some fear the danger or the dirtiness, but others can appreciate a true magic in the forbidden, forgotten, urban space.
In China, this is not a massive hobby. And yet, exploring abandoned or hidden places in Chinese cities is really stimulating: Western/Chinese style buildings from the beginning of the 20th century, socialist architecture of the 1950s, fast urbanization and gigantic ambitious planning projects turning out to be failures... I want to share some discoveries without putting the places at risk: please don't ask me for precise locations, the search is part of the fun anyway!